Two Celebrity Convictions that sink the Bollywood

Within a month, the Bollywood witnessed two celebrity convictions and is all set to lose crores of Rupees if these celebrities go to jail. First came the news that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to six years in prison for purchasing illegal weapons from the accused in the Mumbai Bomb Blast case in 1993. Although he got an interim bail from the Supreme Court, he will be back in prison soon.

Just when Bollywood was recovering from the shock of Sanjay Dutt's conviction, another conviction rattled it. This time it was "Bollywood badboy" Salman Khan. Salman Khan was sentenced to five years in prison by a lower court in a Black Buck hunting case. He had filed an appeal against the verdict in a higher court. However, the higher court upheld the lower court verdict, which mean Salman will have to go to jail for five years.

Sanjay Dutt’s conviction would lead to a loss of Rs 90-100 crore for producers whose films are under production. The films include Kidnap, Mr Fraud and Alibaug. If the conviction takes place, the filmmakers will either shelve their films or replace Dutt with other actors. That would result in a huge loss for the filmmakers. also, it may not be possible for them to replace Dutt with other actors. If the films are shelved, the loss and its impact would be unbearable.

The situation is no different in case of Salman Khan. Salman's conviction will result in a Rs. 70 - 80 crore loss for the Bollywood. Since Salman's recent release "Partner" has been a huge success, the Bollywood heavily relied on him for other big projects. His projects under production include Rumi Jaffery's ''God Tussi Great Ho'', Boney Kapoor's untitled venture, Atul Agnihotri's ''Hello'', ''Mera Bharat Mahan'', Subhash Ghai's ''Yuvraaj'' and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Sawariya''. If Salman goes to jail, the loss for the Bollywood could be much more than expected.

Certainly, it's not a great time for the Bollywood. With some big hits like "Partner" and Chak De", Bollywood was expected to go for a boom in the later half of 2007. However, the conviction of Sanjay Dutt and Salman dampened the mood and spirit. Now filmmakers and the entire Bollywood fraternity are keeping their fingers crossed to see what course the law will take in the coming days.